In the neon-lit sprawl of Neo-Tokyo, a reclusive coder named Aiko Tsuru was known in underground circles as "Cipher". Once a prodigy at Prestige Industries—a megacorp revered for its cutting-edge neural interface technology—Aiko had fled the company after a damning controversy over privacy violations. Now, they lived in the shadows, maintaining their anonymity while crafting algorithms for those who could pay.